Q&A Thursday:
Don't Overthink It Edition
Hello friends!
It's Thursday somewhere, so let's answer some questions. If you're new here (welcome!), every Thursday we take reader questions and I answer them the best I can. Sometimes I have a very definitive this is the only answer in the whole world kind of answer, and sometimes it's ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The fun is finding out which is which.
If you’d like to ask a question for a future Q&A, just respond to any paid email edition. Q&As are available to paid subscribers only, and you can become one of those right here! Without further ado:
E asks: An author contacted me about editing her memoir. She wants to get an agent, but in 2020, she sent a query to every agent listed in Writer's Market who represented memoir. She estimates that she queried about 200 agents. My understanding is that an author shouldn't submit to an agent again unless the agent has invited an R&R. She's changed the title, and she hopes agents will have forgotten her submission. I've got a "red flag" feeling about working with her. But my question is, Is it likely agents will have forgotten? Should she try resubmitting?
Another question, if I may. This author admits that she's not a writer. She hired someone to ghostwrite the version of her memoir that she sent out unsuccessfully, and she wants me to "fix" it by ghostwriting and interviewing her as needed. I know that many celebrity memoirs are ghostwritten, but how do agents feel about representing an unknown person whose memoir is ghostwritten? To me, it defeats the point of writing a memoir. I'd appreciate your thoughts.
Your first question is easy. You are correct. An author should not resend a project to an agent who has already rejected that project without an explicit request to do so, often called an R&R, a revise and resubmit. Agents may or may not remember a past submission, but that's not the point. The author here can want to resubmit and she can even try to do so, but she shouldn't, and if you have a "red flag" feeling about working with her, I would listen to that and not. It's not your job to teach her about publishing, but you can certainly pass on your good advice and knowledge if you'd like to. I, too, feel a strong desire to make sure everyone knows the things I know, but sometimes, that's not our job.
Your second question has a few layers to it. Agents don't have a problem with an unknown person using a ghostwriter. They're not just for celebrities. Some people have extraordinary stories and no writing skills and that's ok. It's also not a huge deal that she wants you to "fix" a previous ghostwriter's work, assuming she has all the rights to do so, which is probably a bigger conversation than you want to have with her. The thing you don't need to worry about is whether using a ghostwriter "defeats the point" of writing a memoir. The author gets to decide what the point of writing her memoir is, whether she writes it all herself or not. Your opinion on that doesn't matter, though you can use it to decide if you want to work with her or not. As a freelance editor, you can use any criteria you want to decide who you work with and you can share that criteria with your potential clients if you'd like. For your own sanity and success, though, I suggest limiting your worries to the tasks that are right in front of you, unless you're offering your potential clients advice and context about the larger publishing market for their work. You can do that, too! But you don't have to if that is not what you want to offer. And anytime you have a "red flag" feeling, listen to it. You'll almost never be wrong. I'm sure there is another editor out there who can help this author. Good luck!
J asks: This past March, I started querying for the first time. My novel received seven full-manuscript requests out of 60 or so queries. All of the full requests have now come back as rejections, so I've decided to stop querying this project and work on my next query package, which is the same genre but completely different subject matter. My plan is to start sending out queries on the new project in a few months once I've had my query materials professionally edited. I'll likely be re-querying a few agents I queried the first time, provided their MSWL suggests they might be interested. Obviously, if an agent personalized the rejection note and told me to think of them if I'm querying anything else, I'll remind them in the letter. And if an agent sent me a form rejection, I can assume they do not remember this and treat the next query like a cold call. (I know Query Manager will tell you if someone's contacted you in the past, but I would assume y'all are too busy to refresh yourselves on your non-history with everyone who queries you unless someone is inundating you. You and I, for example: I queried once, you declined with boilerplate, and if I thought you might vibe with my new project, I wouldn't bother mentioning that I've queried you before, months and months in the past.) But what about re-querying an agent that requested the full manuscript and then rejected me? None of the rejections were R&Rs. Four were flat-out "no thanks" and three were "no thanks and here's why." In the cases where I received personalized feedback, it seems clear: they cared enough to advise me, and if this new project took that advice to heart, they'd probably want to know. But if I sent someone a full manuscript and they sent back a boilerplate rejection, is there an upside to mentioning that? Or a downside, for that matter? Most of these form responses say they "didn't fall in love with [my] writing." I know I shouldn't read anything into a form letter, but is that kind of like saying I took them on a date, they weren't that into me, and I shouldn't ask them out again? (I know I'm overthinking. It's what we do.)
You are overthinking this. But you're also mostly right. First, if you got a form rejection, no need to remind an agent of that when you query them with a new project. They either won't remember, or they will, and neither of those things matter. They'll evaluate the new query on its own merits. If you're querying through Query Manager, it shows the agent if they've received emails from that address before. I can click a link and see the stats (title, date, etc) and status of those other queries and I'll know if I rejected or requested or whatever. I usually check this to make sure the other query is not a duplicate of the one I'm looking at but otherwise, I don't pay super close attention if it's something I've passed on before. Do not freak out that every agent is rehashing every query you've ever sent them in Query Manager. Nobody's got time for that. If I requested it and ultimately passed, I'll probably remember, unless it was like a decade ago. If an agent said something super lovely about your work, remind them! Otherwise, just focus on the new book. You're not hiding anything by not reminding them they've passed on your work before. It's ok to write more than one book. 😄
If you're not using Query Manager, the same rules apply. If the agent happened to say something very nice about your past work, remind them! If they didn't, don't! And don't worry about what an agent remembers or does not. That's their problem! If you want them to remember something specific (and more glowing than they just requested the full) tell them. Otherwise, just query your new project and try not to worry.
Thanks for all the well wishes on my move to Ghost! It already feels like home.
OXOXOXO,
Kate
